Whispers in the Dark
by Call Brandybuck
Summary: Dipper should never have come here. He should never have risked an evening trip to a mysterious cave and thought he could get away with it unharmed. He was putting the both of them in danger - all for some dumb obsession with a journal. (cover image belongs to CherryVioletS)
1. Chapter 1

**The Gravity Falls fandom needs more Stan &amp; Dipper stories about their relationship. Also I now have terrible case of the feels after _Not What He Seems_ and these two stubborn idiots give me life (and much heartache), so here's a plot bunny I've had for a couple of months now.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls, just the plot of this fanfic and any OC monsters. This is set after _Sock Opera._**

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**Whispers in the Dark**

**Ch. 1**

"You're doing _what_?"

Mabel rolled her eyes from where she laid on her bed, sticking out her tongue in the general direction of her sibling. "Dipper, it's just a sleepover at Grenda's house. It's just one night. It's not like I haven't gone before."

Her brother sighed and flopped onto his back on his bed across the attic. "I know, it's just...I wanted to explore these caves I found with the blacklight yesterday. You know Grunkle Stan is getting suspicious about the whole supernatural thing, promising to stay out of trouble and whatnot; he won't like it if I ask to go out into the forest alone with the journal."

"You could bring Waddles, if you want," Mabel said half-jokingly. "Grenda's mom doesn't like having 'messy animals' in the house. But of course, a pet lizard that sheds is alright..."

Dipper groaned and draped an arm over his face as his sister grumbled under her breath. It wasn't that big of a deal, honestly. Mabel had slept over at her friends' houses at least four times already, and the amount of times she'd invited Candy and Grenda over _here_ were numerous. The preteen wasn't worried about what would happen at the sleepover or anything, he knew Mabel could definitely take care of herself if the need arose. It was just that he had really looked forward to exploring those caves with his twin today. But instead it had rained until three o'clock and Stan wouldn't let them out because of how badly it was pouring, and now Mabel sprung the whole sleepover surprise on him...

"Are you sure exploring is the real reason why you're all grumpy, Dippingsauce?"

"Huh?" Her words jerked him out of his slump as he struggled to process them. He sat up, removing the arm from where it rested on his face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Mabel stopped stuffing her nightgown into the suitcase and shot him a startlingly serious glare. "Don't play dumb, bro-bro. I'm talking about those _dreams_."

_Oh._

He had hoped she had forgotten about those. Then again, it had been over a week since _that day_, and they hadn't gone away.

"Mabel, that's not the reason why I'm upset."

"Uh-huh, sure."

"Really!"

His twin rolled her eyes, but she set down the clothing in her hands and walked over to where he was sitting. It was a strange sight to see the usually energetic girl still and serious.

"You'll be okay, right?"

Dipper's lips twitched slightly despite his twin's nervous tone. "Yeah, of course, Mabel. I can handle a few nightmares."

Mabel shot him another glare. He noted that she was starting to wring her hands anxiously. "I'm serious, Dipper. I know you're still having them, even if they're not as bad anymore. If... If you want me to stay instead of going - "

"What - ? No, no! Mabel, it's okay!" He scooted closer to grab her hands so she'd stop twisting them about. Her nervous antics were starting to make _him_ feel antsy. "I'll be fine, really. You don't have to stay and cancel your plans just because _I'm_ having problems. Besides, you've been stuck with me for over a week now. I think Doctor Mabel needs some time off."

Her eyes seemed a little watery, which momentarily scared the boy before she blinked it away and embraced him tightly. He couldn't help but hug her back, fisting his hands in her purple sweater.

"I just... after what happened... you know I worry about you too, right? I just don't want you to think I'm abandoning you or anything - "

"Mabel," Dipper cut in gently, ignoring the way his heart ached at her words. "You're not abandoning me. You're going to Grenda's house, and _that is okay._ I know you're worried, but I'll be okay without you for one night. It's just like every other sleepover, right?"

She sniffed and nodded against his shoulder. "Right."

Mabel peeled herself off of her brother, wiping furiously at her left eye as he offered her a small smile. She managed to give him a weak glare.

"You'd better call me if you have a nightmare, okay, Dippingsauce? Or even talk to Grunkle Stan about them if you can't get to a phone."

Dipper snorted at that idea. Talking to his great-uncle about something like this was impossible. Sure, the old man knew about the supernatural and Dipper knew now that he didn't hate him, but having a conversation about the nightmares... No, that just wouldn't happen. Plus, it would mean admitting that he had broken his promise and he didn't want to know how Stan would react to such a thing.

"Yeah, I'll call you. I promise."

Mabel shot him a knowing look. "Grunkle Stan could probably help too, you know."

He snorted again. "Yeah, that's not happening. It would be too awkward for the both of us, and then he'd get mad because... well, that would mean admitting everything we've done since the zombie incident!"

His sister huffed in exasperation and said, "He worried about you too, Dip. If he knows anything about what's going on, maybe he could help. I'm not saying you have to... it's just a thought."

"Look, Mabel - "

"Will you at least _think about it_? For me?"

No, she wasn't going to use the puppy dog eyes on him. No, that wasn't going to work, it _wasn't, dang it -_ "Alright, I'll think about it."

Mabel smiled wide. "Promise?"

"Promise."

"Good!" She hugged Dipper tightly once more and he chuckled at her renewed enthusiasm. "Don't worry, Dipper! I'll be back tomorrow before lunch, and then the Mystery Twins are back in action!"

Dipper rolled his eyes playfully, something odd shifting in his gut. Waiting so long to explore after being fussed over and not leaving the Mystery Shack for a week... he could stand to wait a little bit longer, right?

His gaze flitted over to where the journal lay open by the window. Of course he could. He could wait for Mabel.

He could survive one more night.

**DSRHKVIH RM GSV WZIP**

If there was one thing Stanford Pines was known for, it wasn't being a patient man. He often couldn't stand grocery lines because they moved too dang slow, or even gritting his teeth every time a customer took more than half an hour in the gift shop to decide what to spend their money on. He had no patience for slow folk or those who liked to take their time to be perfectionists in everything they did.

It was funny how that logic was being completely disregarded now after thirty years of searching and playing his cards right - and being _patient_, of all things.

His brother would have been proud, Stan thought a little bitterly as he typed in a few coordinates in the computer. Mabel was off at some sleepover and Dipper had gone to bed around nine, saying something about being tired or whatever. It was fine by him, as long as the kid wasn't doing something detrimental to his health, because it meant more time to work on the machine.

His fingers paused mid-sequence as that thought replayed itself in his head. Ever since the strange accident at the older girl's sock opera, Dipper had been acting a little odd (odder than usual, which was saying something considering how often the boy would go off on tangents about the weirdness in the town). His dark bags had begun to fade away but the tired look in his brown eyes hadn't. The cuts were healing - yet every time he actually dared to ask Mabel about how her twin was (_not that he was worrying about Dipper, no, why would you ask such a thing, was it getting hot in here or was it just him, heh?_) the girl would give him a thin smile that told him things were definitely not okay.

What was wrong with the kid? He didn't act like his scrapes and bruises were hurting, so maybe it was a mental issue. Neither of the twins had approached him to explain the details of what had gone down that day, why they had been fighting onstage one moment and setting off fireworks into the audience in the next, why Dipper was almost dragged out by his twin who was telling Stan to _stop standing there and staring because he needs help, oh my gosh, help me!_

Stan sighed heavily and continued typing. He was growing soft because of these two, he just knew it. He'd officially recognized these feelings for what they were by the time he'd been on a pterodactyl's back punching it in the face - Was this really what his life had become? Yeesh, the things he did for these kids - yet every time he thought about them, they seemed to just intensify. It left a weird burning sensation in his heart... not that it wasn't unpleasant or anything.

He wondered how his brother would have handled these two. Dipper and his twin were surprisingly alike, what with all of the stubborn book-loving bones in both of their bodies. Now that he thought about it, Mabel and Stan himself were a little alike too. It was funny, he had never noticed that. Maybe it ran in the family.

A low groan escaped his lips as his eyelids fluttered. God, he was tired. He had spent almost every night down here in the lab and while progress was certainly being made, it wasn't enough. None of it was enough to fix his mistakes.

_No, no more guilty feelings_, Stan scolded himself, pinching his arm to keep himself awake. There would be time for that later, when he finished all of this.

The kids were going to hate him by summer's end, and he knew it. It was best that he enjoyed this while it lasted.

**DSRHKVIH RM GSV WZIP**

He couldn't survive one more night.

The preteen boy paced the attic floor, his sock-clad feet barely making a sound as he chewed on his lower lip. In his hands he held a blacklight over the journal, scanning the pages on the mysterious caves he'd so recently found. It was just a peek, no harm done. Stan had gone to bed a couple of hours ago and now it was nearly one in the morning, but _he couldn't sleep,_ not with the anxiety and the curiosity building up inside of him.

Or, in other words, Dipper Pines didn't want to sleep because he knew what would happen once he drifted off.

Mabel didn't need to know. He'd just find some time to sleep before she got back to the Shack, when someone was awake to hear him screaming and _gosh, he couldn't sleep with the memories of previous nights dancing in his head_.

They hadn't gotten worse, his sister hadn't been wrong about that. The problem was, they had not stopped becoming frightening to the boy, especially when his body occasionally ached in remembrance of not too long ago. It was the same every night, yet even with its predictability he couldn't figure out a way to stop it from occurring.

Maybe he'd look that up in the journal later.

Dipper sat on the edge of his bed after another minute of pacing and rubbed his eyes. He needed something to do, something to keep him awake and occupied. He couldn't fall asleep.

Glancing at the page still lit by the blacklight, he noted that the author had written to the side of an illustration: _CAUTION. CAVES ARE VERY NEAR AND DANGEROUS. DEFENSES?_

He frowned and scanned the tiny hand-drawn map at the bottom of the page. It appeared to be of the forest and - wait _was that the Mystery Shack? _His eyes widened. If those caves were nearby and as dangerous as the author seemed to think... No, he had to see for himself. Besides, what was so terrible about it all? There were no monsters inside according to what was written down.

He continued to read below the warning: _My studies have brought me to the entrance of this cave and I have heard rumors that perhaps whatever is inside can calm your fears. This would be particularly useful so I consider the possibility an added bonus to my exploration. I will venture inside and write down my research later._

Cure your fears, huh? Dipper bit his lip. That would help him sleep at night. There was no added passage about the discoveries. Did it really work? What had he found? Maybe the caves weren't that dangerous after all.

Curiosity burned in his gut as he shifted his weight on the bed. _No, he couldn't._

_ No...he shouldn't._

_ ...Well, if he was back quick enough..._

_ After all, Stan was a heavy sleeper. He could definitely be back by morning._

_ But Mabel... she was going to explore with him tomorrow. He should wait._

Dipper groaned and sat there silently for a few minutes, mulling over his options in his head. Another groan and a mumble of something unpleasant left his throat.

_He wasn't going to wait. Sorry, Mabel._

**DSRHKVIH RM GSV WZIP**

Stan rubbed his tired eyes and stood from the chair as code raced across the screen. He should get to bed, it was almost one twenty and he was exhausted already. The machine could wait for tomorrow night.

He watched the last of the code vanish to be processed and after waiting a moment, just to be safe, he shut everything down for the night.

The older man was right about to turn off his surveillance cameras around the Shack when he spotted something in the shadows that made his blood run cold.

Something small was hurrying in the dark towards the woods, turning on a flashlight once at the edge. There was no mistaking the boy's face in the light.

Stan swore loudly and almost ran for the elevator. _Idiot!_ He should have known that that kid wouldn't have kept his promise. After all, it wasn't like he had kept his either. That boy was too curious for his own good, and no matter how many times he had been in those woods, he didn't know how to protect himself from all of those supernatural creatures - especially those ones he didn't know of. _Especially at night._

The elevator seemed to be moving at the speed of a snail and when he finally got out, he hurried out of the vending machine, nearly slamming it shut before grabbing his shoes and some clothes other than his boxers and wifebeater. He ran out the door, already out of breath as he took off in the direction the boy had been going.

_I should have known you'd do this._

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**Oh! And by the way...**

_**Mr. Atbash is glad to see you.**_

**Enjoy the rest of the story!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I won't usually make author notes for this story, but I feel like I need to just this once because you all have accepted this story so well and it's only been one chapter! I've gotten such good responses and already had 14 reviews and so many favorites and followers on this story. I'm so happy you all enjoy the story so far, and I hope you continue to enjoy the next chapters! I'll try and update usually every Sunday or Monday whenever I can. This update is just a surprise because I actually finished it today.**

**(By the way, you guys have great story predictions. Some of these make me laugh evilly as I type these words. Poor souls. I can neither confirm nor deny, although some of these are interesting ideas.)**

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**Ch. 2**

Dipper made a note to hurry through the woods as he thought he heard something nearby. Probably a supernatural creature hungry for curious twelve year old boys. It was best if he avoided any monsters tonight.

Hopefully nobody would notice he was gone. Stan was the only one at the Shack and he was asleep, so all Dipper needed to worry about was getting back to the attic by morning so the old man never noticed he had gone out that night.

He read the directions from the journal as he shone his flashlight up ahead, searching for the entrance. Supposedly there was a large bush with sharp leaves by his destination. The bush was unlike one he had seen before, the faint sketch on the page making it appear more like a half-porcupine, half-hedgehog creature instead of a bush. The boy snorted at the idea. What kind of monster would that even be? _Probably not a very scary one._

Oh, well. It wasn't like he was looking for trouble. This exploration was fairly simple and easygoing compared to his ones of late. Dipper shuddered at the memory of the bunker and the shapeshifter in its confines. Thank goodness they had frozen it for good.

Unfortunately, this memory only served to dredge of memories of a certain something he had been trying to forget. The darkness in the forest didn't help as he shivered and held the journal closer to his chest, fingers clenched tightly around the flashlight.

_Running, running, had to get away, had to escape, oh man, it was so close, he could hear it coming _-

Dipper shook himself, swallowing hard as he walked faster. No, he wasn't going to think about that. He was here to forget his fears and stop worrying his sister over this whole mess. He was doing the right thing and all that he had to do was enter that cave and see what it was that cured this.

The preteen could still faintly hear the rustling of bushes and he tensed, walking faster than he already was, not quite at a run. No, he wasn't going to get hurt tonight. He was just going to see if this cave had the cure to these nightmares and go. That was it, end of story.

Still, he couldn't shake the uneasy feeling in his gut. Why did it feel like something was wrong? Why did it feel like he had forgotten something?

**XIZHSVH XIZHSVH KRMVH UZOO WLDM**

This kid was making him angry now. Stan paused to catch his breath, putting his hands on his knees. He hadn't run that fast in a long time.

He could faintly see the footprints of a small child in the dirt ahead of him, which was the only way he could really follow the boy now. He couldn't see the flashlight very well and it looked like Dipper had decided waving the light about wasn't smart (no kidding) so the last time he'd spotted it, it had been lowered and pointing in one direction solely.

The boy didn't appear to be running but Stan was having a hard time catching up. He already had a rip on his shoulder and as he examined it now, he growled in annoyance. Dipper was going to wish he had been eaten by a dragon by the time this old man caught up with the kid.

With a deep sigh, he began to hurry after the boy once more.

**XIZHSVH XIZHSVH KRMVH UZOO WLDM**

He frowned when he heard a twig snap, eyes wide in horror. He looked around only to realize that it was he who had stepped on the twig. Blushing, he muttered to himself, "Well, that was embarrassing."

Dipper glanced over to his right and gasped quietly. Directly to his right, about twenty paces away, sat a large bush with sharp leaves. _I found it! I found the bush! So that means that the cave..._

He whipped around, hurrying to the bush as he looked about for any sign of the entrance. He found it in moments; a large gaping hole twice the size of him carved into stone not far from the bush.

Smiling, the brunette made his way to it, eyeing the entranceway. When he shone his flashlight inside, it showed him nothing. Nothing appeared to be living there and he couldn't see the back wall from here.

With a deep breath, steeling his nerves, Dipper walked in and shone the flashlight ahead of him. Hopefully he hadn't found the wrong cave and just sealed his fate right before some creature tried to eat him. Then again, why was he worrying? When had the author ever led him astray?

He chuckled quietly, glancing to his left at some weird moisture dripping from the wall. No, the author was definitely right. He had to be. After all, he hadn't mentioned anything yet about the cave and everything seemed to be alright now that the kid was inside. No monsters, no bloodthirsty beasts, not even the Multi-bear.

The darkness clung to his skin like a coat as he walked farther in, wondering just how deep this cave went into the stone. It looked like it angled sharply down into the earth in a few more feet. Dipper realized that the moisture on the walls had to be water. Was there a stream nearby? He hadn't heard any sounds of water when walking near this cave.

He shrugged to himself at the question, despite the fact that he hadn't said anything aloud. Maybe it was farther past the cave entrance. Maybe he just hadn't heard it. He _was_ tired, after all. It was late and he probably had just missed it.

Dipper slowly made his way down the steep slope of the path through the cave. It looked as if it stretched on for a while, going deep into the ground. He walked slower, half-grabbing onto the plant root by his hand to try and steady himself. The unease was returning once more; he had the strangest feeling that he was forgetting something and yet he knew he had grabbed everything he needed back at the Shack. What could he possibly have missed?

There was the sound of footsteps nearby, (from the front of the cave, it sounded) and the boy froze entirely. He couldn't shut off the flashlight due to the fact that he was also clutching the journal close and his free hand was holding a plant root. So he just stayed as still as he could, trying not to imagine morbid scenarios of how this could play out. Maybe it wasn't a monster. Maybe the stranger was a friendly rabbit or something.

He cringed at that last thought. Yeah, he couldn't be optimistic. That was Mabel's specialty.

If only she were here with her grappling hook or something. Maybe she would have worn that light-up sweater she'd made so that her brother could _shut off this darn flashlight_.

The footsteps stopped above where he was and he shut his eyes, trying to will his heart to still.

_Please walk away. Please don't notice me. I don't want to be eaten. I want to live, please go aw _-

"Kid."

The soft growl caused Dipper's eyes to bulge as they shot open and he lost his grip on the plant root. He began to slid down the slope of the path but was stopped abruptly by a large hand yanking him up by the bag on his back. He realized he was frozen and tried to will his limbs to move but he couldn't.

He was set down on his feet at the start of the slope and he immediately looked up to meet Stan's gaze, no matter how much he didn't want to. Maybe it was the shapeshifter. Maybe Stan was still at home and this was just a fake -

"What were you thinking?! Did you not think I would notice you leaving the Shack in the middle of the night to go _exploring_? I'm not an idiot, Dipper!"

Nope. It was definitely him.

Dipper took a deep breath and steeled his gaze to stand his ground against his great-uncle's furious expression.

"You didn't have to come and get me. I'm fine, see? Besides, I was only going out for a little bit!"

"It doesn't matter! These woods are dangerous, kid!"

"You think I don't know that?!" Dipper was vaguely aware of the fact that his hands were trembling.

"Clearly not," Stan snapped as he crossed his arms over his chest. The man's words were a bit harsh, he knew, but Dipper didn't seem to realize that going into the woods this late could get him killed. And that was one thing he would never let happen.

The boy groaned loudly and threw his hands in the air. "You always act like I don't know what I'm doing, but I do! If you'd just _listen to me for once_ \- !"

"I do listen," Stan interrupted, holding up a finger to stop the younger from ranting further, "and what I hear is that your obsession is going to get you killed! You can't go one night without looking for something supernatural, can you? You promised me you were going to not go looking for trouble, and what are you doing now?! _Looking for trouble!_"

"No, I'm not!" Dipper exclaimed, jabbing a finger at his relative in turn. "I'm here for a different reason, okay?"

A thought suddenly struck Stan, and he tuned out the kid as he continued ranting. Memories of the twins smiling widely at him before disappearing with Soos and Wendy for nearly the whole day, making up some strange story about why they had to drive Pacifica Northwest home after some sort of truce in the girls' golf battle, Dipper covered in bruises and collapsing once Mabel got him out the door of the theater and _having to take him to the hospital_...

"Wait a minute," he growled stepping closer to the boy, who stopped talking with a glare. "You've been disobeying me this _entire time_, haven't you? You and your sister have been exploring and looking for trouble _when I specifically told you not to?!_"

Dipper fought back his nerves at the tone in his voice. His great-uncle looked absolutely enraged now.

"Dipper, do you have any idea how - ?!" Stan stopped himself and ran his hand through his graying hair angrily, trying to calm himself down. "I asked you to make me a simple promise, kid, and apparently you can't do that?"

Any and all control left in the boy vanished. "Yeah, I lied, okay? Did you really think I was going to just _stop_ exploring? You can't keep me from exploring the mysteries of this town! A-And some of the time, trouble just finds us so it isn't like we have any control over the supernatural, Grunkle Stan!"

Stan gritted his teeth. "The least you could have done was to _try_ and stay out of things here, kid. You think you know how dangerous these woods and Gravity Falls are? You're wrong, got it? I'm not just telling you this to bore you or to make you ignore me or to have you go behind my back doing exactly what I tell you not to do! I'm trying to _protect_ you _and_ your sister so that there isn't another zombie attack or gnomes trying to kidnap one of you or _something_!"

"We know how to protect ourselves! We don't need you to watch our backs every second. It's not like we haven't dealt with the supernatural before you told us not to get involved."

"_No_," Stan snapped, his left hand clenching into a fist. "You clearly don't know how to protect yourself, if you think that coming out here in the middle of the night is a good idea!"

"If all you're going to do is lecture me, just go back to the Mystery Shack!"

"No, don't even try that! You really think I am going to leave you in this cave in the middle of the forest by yourself? Ha!"

The old man reached out to grab his great-nephew's wrist but Dipper backed away. His brown eyes blazed with anger and Stan was reminded of many times when his own brother had given him that exact look.

For some reason, this frightened Stan a little.

"I'm not going back until I do what I need to, okay? Just wait outside if you're worried or whatever."

Dipper turned back to the slippery slope to the rest of the cave but before he could take a single step, he froze. There was a low tremble in the ground and he thought he heard a faint rumble. Something was definitely wrong.

"Kid, we're going back." Stan reached for him again but again, the preteen boy yanked away. He clearly didn't hear or feel the rumble.

"Something's wrong."

Stan rolled his eyes, figuring this was just a trick to get him to go. "Kid, I'm not falling for that. Let's go. You need to sleep. You're tired."

"No, something really is wrong."

Dipper listened, straining his ears, but the sound was gone and the tremble was fading. His gut told him to run and he desperately wanted to, but something told him Stan wouldn't listen.

"_Kid_ \- "

"Stop, okay? I heard something and I felt it, and now it's gone - !"

"We are going back, alright?" Stan finally snapped, grabbing the boy's arm. "Look, you're tired and we are both not in the best of moods, so can you _listen to me_ \- "

"You want _me_ to listen to _you_," Dipper shouted, whipping around to meet his great-uncle's gaze, "when _you won't even listen to me now?!_"

"Dipper - !"

"I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE, GRUNKLE STAN!"

There was only a split-second of tense silence as both stared each other down, Stan in slight shock that the boy had actually yelled at him like that and Dipper out of anger (and feeling a little out of breath form his yelling).

The moment the split-second ended, multiple things happened in succession.

Stan opened his mouth to speak, but his great-nephew never knew what it was he would've said because just then the earth shook violently. They both fell to their knees and Dipper slipped out of Stan's grasp, rolling down the slope of the cave. His flashlight had fallen and neither one could see in the dark gloom, but Stan still felt the immense terror inside when he realized the boy wasn't there.

All of a sudden the ceiling above collapsed sharply with a loud crack and the older Pines had no choice but to throw himself down after the kid, grunting every time his back hit the dirt painfully. The earth shook for moments more as the two collapsed at the bottom and dust filled the air.

Silence.

Stan groaned after a few moments and sat up shakily. His back hurt badly from the tumble down the slope of that cave. He spotted the flashlight to his right and scooped it up, looking around at their surroundings.

His eyes widened as he noticed Dipper not ten feet away, not moving. _No, no, no._

"Kid!"

He hurried over and picked the boy up with gentle hands. Dipper was breathing at least, and his eyes were fluttering like they wanted to open. Relief flooded through the elder man.

"Dipper, are you alright?"

Dipper paused before nodding, opening his eyes only to squint at the bright light of the flashlight to the side of his face. "Gr-Grunkle Stan?"

Stan sighed before coughing awkwardly to relieve the tension and set the twelve year old down on his feet. "Who else?"

"I don't know, I just thought - " The boy frowned, thinking hard. The earthquake (of sorts... there couldn't be earthquakes in Oregon, could there?) had disoriented him and he needed to refocus on the situation.

"What was that?"

Stan shrugged. "Earthquake, I guess. We don't get them usually here in town. Maybe it was something supernatural."

It was strange to hear his great-uncle talk about the oddities in the town with such a casual tone.

Dipper took the flashlight from him and aimed it back up the slope. Both of the Pines males cringed at the sight before them. The roof of the cave had completely caved in and there was now a wall of rock and stone in its place. There was no way around it and neither one of them wanted to spend fruitless hours of trying to tear it down. It appeared solid.

So they were trapped in the cave.

Dipper buried his face in his hands, the flashlight's beam pointing off to the side as he did so. "Oh, man. Oh, _man_."

"Kid, calm down. Don't panic," Stan told him as gently as he possibly could. It was more than a little obvious that the kid's face had gone white even with his hands blocking out most of his face before he looked up to meet Stan's eye.

"I told you I felt something! I told you something was wrong, Grunkle Stan, and what did you do? You ignored me!"

Stan sighed heavily. "This isn't the time nor the place for - "

"You never listen to me, see?" Dipper snapped, not realizing his hands were shaking. "See, this is why I told Mabel I didn't - " He reconsidered what he was about to say and groaned loudly with an "UGH!" instead.

"If you hadn't gone out to this cave in the first place, we wouldn't even be here, kid," reminded the old man. The warning tone in his voice suggested he was still angry with the preteen.

Dipper was about to retort when he frowned, noticing something over Stan's shoulder. He aimed he flashlight behind the man and moved closer. There appeared to be no wall at what should have been a dead end. Spinning about, he realized that there were actually no walls in this entire section of the cave.

If this wasn't a dead end, then what was this?

"What are you doing?" Stan asked after watching the boy think for a minute. He had no idea how the argument had turned into some sort of examination of the walls - _wait._ He inhaled sharply as he looked around now too.

Dipper knew his great-uncle had noticed the same thing judging by the gasp. "This isn't a cave," he said softly.

"It's a series of tunnels," Stan finished, coming to stand by his great-nephew. And indeed they were, with three different entrances all in front of them. The one closest looked worn from the earthquake and both mentally decided not to go down there in case of more severe deterioration.

"I-I can't believe it." Dipper opened his journal and shone the flashlight on the page with the cave details. "The author mentions nothing about it being a series of tunnels! It looks like he says nothing at all about them! Is this the right place?"

"What page are you looking at?" The elder male leaned over, squinting. He froze as the page looked familiar. Sure, he'd read the journals before, but it didn't mean he had read every nook and cranny his brother had written.

The boy covered the description about the cave curing your fears casually and pointed to the paragraph the writer had scribbled down. He wasn't sure if he wanted his relative to know just why he had come down here. After all, he had already gotten so mad when he'd found out Dipper had left in the first place.

Stan read down the page and frowned thoughtfully. Vague memories from decades ago came to mind, something about his twin wanting to explore some new part of the woods and some legend...

"Doesn't look like there's much there."

Dipper nodded in agreement. "Maybe he thought that exploring wasn't worth his time after all and didn't write anything down."

Stan bit his lip before he let anything slip, pretending to stare at the journal. No, Stanley had definitely mentioned this to him. He didn't remember where or what he was forgetting but he knew that his brother wouldn't leave a part of the forest untouched. Especially not if he had whole pages written solely about caves/tunnels.

A sharp growl reached their ears and both of the Pines froze. Dipper's heart practically slammed against his chest as he backed up, only to run into his great-uncle's stomach. It was coming from the tunnel farthest from them, and growing steadily louder.

They had nowhere to go but forward.

"Run," Stan said needlessly, gesturing quickly to the second tunnel. "Down that one, go! I'll be right behind you!"

Without a single word, the boy bolted and Stan hurried after, grateful that he at least had his brass knuckles in his pants pocket. He followed the beam of the flashlight, catching up to his relative in seconds and they heard a louder growl from just outside the tunnel. Neither of them spoke, their only form of communication being when Stan put his hand on Dipper's shoulder to steer him in a certain direction.

They prayed for another branch in the tunnels, but had no such luck as they ran. This tunnel was curved like a noodle but had no other wings to hide in. Both only hoped that the creature didn't have a fantastic sense of smell.

The growling grew ever louder as they grew tired and when Dipper glanced back, he spotted a brief shadow from around the latest curve in the tunnel. His heart flew to his throat and he didn't dare look back again.

Stan led him down the next curve of the tunnel and they came to a branch in the tunnel finally. It was split into two paths and the growling suddenly grew unbelievably loud in volume. Stan grabbed Dipper's arm as the boy froze and pulled him toward the nearest tunnel.

Dipper's eyes widened as a sense of déjà vu overwhelmed him. He recalled the shapeshifter and running down the tunnels with Wendy, trying desperately to escape as loud shrieks reached their ears.

He came to a halt and ripped his arm out of his great-uncle's grasp before chucking the flashlight down the other tunnel. Before Stan could protest, he dragged the elder back down their tunnel and they hid out of sight. It was another minute before they heard a loud growl and the sound faded away as the beast chased their flashlight instead of them down the adjacent tunnel.

Stan waited another minute before quietly exploding. "What the heck did you do? Do you have any idea how hard it will be to find our way out of here without a flashlight? We can barely see each other _now,_ kid!"

Dipper rolled his eyes and set down his bag, rummaging through it as Stan continued to snap at him.

"Sure, it wasn't the smartest idea for me not to bring one when I had to run out here to find you, but what you just did was even worse. Kid, are you even - ?"

Stan froze mid-sentence as a beam of light hit him in the chest. The intense look on Dipper's face only paralyzed his tongue further.

"Listening to you? Yes, I am. Oh, and I brought an extra flashlight, by the way. Thanks for asking, Grunkle Stan."

Wisely, his great-uncle made no reply.


	3. Chapter 3

**Ch. 3**

Neither one of them spoke for the following fifteen minutes of walking in the dark tunnel. Stan was gritting his teeth together, thinking of various things he could be saying right now to express his discontent, but said nothing. Dipper likewise was unhappy and recalling the moments leading up to them being trapped in these tunnels. The boy could only remember how his great-uncle hadn't _listened to him__ for once_ before growing angry and fighting back the urge to yell at Stan. For someone who supposedly cared about him, the old man wasn't showing it.

Despite having seen Stan's memories, having watched the man's spiel about how he was trying to toughen the boy up for life's obstacles, Dipper was having a hard time believing that this was the same person in his memory. They couldn't talk for five minutes without getting into an argument! His great-uncle had a funny way of showing that he cared if that memory was true. He yawned and rubbed his eyes when his great-uncle wasn't looking. Gosh, it was late. He really needed to sleep...

No. No, he couldn't sleep. He had completely forgotten about what happened when he did, why he had come into that cave in the first place.

_Was_ there even a cure? Now that the "cave" was revealed to not really be a cave anymore, the boy wasn't sure if the cure was real either. What if this was all a wild goose chase?

Stan noticed the preteen boy's brown eyes were glazing over with sleep and bit his lower lip. Geez, had the kid slept at all? A surge of guilt hit him as he realized he hadn't even thought about the fact that they both probably hadn't slept since last night. Now that he thought about it...he did feel a little tired too...

He pinched his arm hurriedly, eyes narrowing in determination. No. He was stronger than that. He was going to stay up all night if he had to in order to keep him and his great-nephew safe.

"Hey, um, kid?" Dipper looked over, a little startled at the sound of his relative's voice

"Uh, yeah?"

"I think we should rest. I mean, we don't know what that thing was and we can't be passing out when it comes back. Or..._if_ it comes back." The two of them knew that the "if" was less probable than the "when" in that speculation, but Dipper said nothing about it.

Dipper, however, was not thinking of the monster this time. He could only recall once more why he definitely _should not rest_ and felt a rush of panic. No, no, he couldn't do that. He couldn't go to sleep, not here where Stan would have to wake him up from the terrors awaiting him in his dreams. Not here where he might attract a monster or two with his screaming.

"Um... How about in a few more minutes? I'm sure we can both hold out a little longer, right?" Dipper said anxiously, trying for a smile. He walked faster, not meeting his great-uncle's eyes as he heard a soft sigh from beside him.

"Kid, I'm tired. You're clearly tired too. Why don't we just take a break, okay? We'll take turns keeping watch for anymore supernatural creatures and then we can try and escape these dumb tunnels. Sound good?"

The boy shut his eyes, trying not to sound desperate. "B-But - !"

A sharp look from Stan and a raised eyebrow caused him to sigh now. The preteen shuffled his feet as they walked in silence for another minute. He didn't want to be a burden on Stan, especially since this was _his_ exploration that had caused his great-uncle to venture after him in the first place. Besides, maybe sleeping in these strange tunnels was part of the cure? What if there was some sort of magic here that could help?

It was worth a try (also he was having a very difficult time keeping his eyes open).

"I... I guess we can stop. But you have to wake me in a few hours, okay?"

Stan rolled his eyes, secretly smirking inwardly at the victory. "Yeah, sure. Now come on, you look like a raccoon with those bags. Let's rest over here."

They settled into a corner of one of the tunnels, hidden mostly in the shadows as Dipper reluctantly handed his great-uncle the flashlight. He glanced about nervously as Stan turned it off, feeling as if the darkness was mocking him. It knew he was terrified and it knew what he would face once he laid down his head.

Maybe this was a bad idea.

Stan noticed the boy's hesitation even in the dark and reached out blindly, laying a hand on the younger's shoulder. Dipper jumped, which made Stan chuckle a little.

"Relax, kid. You'll be fine. I'll keep my hand on you the whole time, don't worry. Nothing's gonna hurt you."

Dipper's shoulders slumped slightly but he was still fairly tense. Stan faintly wondered if it was really the threat of the monsters down here that made him so jittery.

"Right. R-Right. I mean, you punched a pterodactyl in the face. You'll probably do that to whatever's down here too, knowing you."

Stan laughed quietly. At least the kid still had somewhat of a sense of humor intact.

"See, you're right about that! No flying dinosaurs are going to scare me. Now, go to sleep and enjoy it while you can. I've got to keep watch and I can't do that if we're both awake."

Dipper paused, wondering briefly if he could try and find other ways to stall. Judging by how Stan's hand tightened slightly on his shoulder, he highly doubted it. The old man was too sharp to fall for that.

Sighing to himself, he laid down on the hard earth and felt a bit more reassured now that his great-uncle's hand had moved to his back. It made the boy wonder if it was a protective gesture, one of comfort, or both. He shut his eyes tightly, unsure if he wanted to dwell on that thought.

_ Maybe the nightmares will skip me tonight_, he thought to himself hopefully as he realized he was slipping off into slumber. _Maybe it'll be a fairly good night and the dream won't be so bad. _After all, they had been growing less and less scary from what they had been originally.

The corners of Stan's lips twitched as he caught the sound of Dipper softly snoring after several minutes. Good. Now maybe he wouldn't be so irritable when his great-uncle confronted him again about this whole mess.

He sighed and shook his head, gripping the flashlight close to his body and wishing for the thousandth time that he had thought to bring his brass knuckles when he'd run out of the Shack after this kid.

_Oh, well. Those peabrains won't know what hit them if they even _try_ to get close to my great-nephew._

**RGHB YRGHB WRKKVI GZMTOVW LM Z HKRWVI DVY LU KZRM**

_Darkness._

_ It consumed him and snuffed out any hope that had been alight inside his heart._

Run!_ screamed the voices around him as a soft ticking sound reached his ears. Oh, god, was that a timer? What was it for?_

_ Panicked thoughts entered his head at the realization that he suddenly really didn't want to know. He bolted in whatever direction he was facing opposite and didn't dare look back. He wasn't quite sure if he'd be able to see anything if he tried. It just appeared that he was running through empty space._

_ Judging by how the ticking was growing louder steadily and how the other dreams had gone (oh, no, he had forgotten about those) he didn't pause to ponder this. He wouldn't have much time to._

_ A low sound reached his ears, almost like fireworks going off from a far away place and he found himself crying out as it increased in volume as well._

_ No, he couldn't stop. He couldn't let them find him. He couldn't slow down, he could barely breathe, he could barely think straight. All that mattered was getting away and _not getting caught_ because oh, gosh, he was so screwed._

_ The ticking was increasing in speed as he ran faster, harder, and it sounded as if the timer was right beside his ear. A small whimper left his throat as he remembered what had happened the last time he had decided to just stop when the ticking had been this close. It ticked faster no matter how quickly he ran but now he could hear the dull noise growing louder and that never led to good things in his nightmares._

_ Then there was an ominous click and the world exploded around him as he screamed. It felt as if his eardrums were bursting from inside his skull._

_ His surroundings flooded with color and he took note of the fact that he was standing on a catwalk, holding a rope that was shockingly heavy. He gripped it tighter and yanked hard, bringing the object in question into view. Immediately memories of a terrible laugh, a deal backfiring, and watching his sister fight against an imposter._

_ "Isn't this great, Pine Tree?" came the all-too-familiar voice inside his head. Bill was never physically there so he wasn't ever certain that his dreams were created by the demon, but it always set him on edge every time he heard the high-pitched voice. "Shooting Star looks terrified, ha!"_ No, it's not great!_ he wanted to scream, staring back at his sister's scared brown eyes. She clutched his journal closer to her chest, a protective gesture that he didn't miss - and it made his heart ache as he knew what was going to happen. _Get out! Get out before you can't!_ he wished he could tell her._

_ But he was silent. The only way he spoke was through his head now, and only Bill could hear him._

_ "Aw, look at that! Touching, isn't it? Just makes you wanna _rip out someone's heart_, eh?"_

_ The warning echo in the demon's voice made him tremble as he gripped the rope with both hands tighter. No, he wasn't letting go. He couldn't. He_ wouldn't_ this time._

_ "It's cute that you believe you have a choice, kid."_

Please.

_ The demon laughed loudly at his pleading._

_ "Sorry, kid...but you're_ **_my_**_ puppet now!"_

_ Before the preteen boy could do anything, a low snarl left his throat (That's not from me, Mabel, can't you tell?! Please, run!) and he abruptly let go of the rope. He wanted to scream Mabel's name as she plummeted, tears spilling down his face as he watched her stare up at him in plain horror. She looked so frightened of what she knew was inevitable and it made him want to tear out his hair, throttle the voice in his head, rip this awful priest costume off so that he never had to look at the thing again._

_ He did none of that._

_ Instead, he watched as his best friend fell towards the stage, holding his book closer as she faced her fate. He sank to his knees, unable to scream her name, wishing he could do something, anything -_

"DIPPER!"

The brunette let out a sharp scream and sat upright, instantly burying his head in his hands. His knees curled up to his chest as he breathed heavily, tears still fresh on his cheeks. It had happened. The nightmares hadn't bypassed him tonight. He wasn't okay, he needed Mabel, he needed to see that she was okay, _what if she wasn't okay - ?!_

"Dipper?"

A voice was calling his name gently. Dipper shook his head, wishing they would go away and let him ache in peace. He vaguely recalled that his sister was at a sleepover so she wouldn't be back yet and the panic rose as he shut his eyes tight. Was she okay? Why hadn't she called? What if Bill kept his promise and did hurt her? Was it too late?

It was all his fault, _all his fault_, and he couldn't do anything to stop it -

"Kid, you're starting to scare me."

Dipper's brow furrowed as he remembered where he was...and who he was with.

_Oh._

Stan watched his great-nephew expectantly, keeping the flashlight out of the boy's face despite the fact that he was hiding it in his hands. Oh, god - were those tears? His eyes widened as he took in the sight before him. He'd never seen the boy like this, _ever._

The older man had been keeping watch for the past hour or so (from what he was guessing, that is; Stan had no clue if he was counting the minutes right down here) when he'd felt Dipper's heart rate increase rapidly all of a sudden. He'd attempted to wake the kid but then all that had done was make him cry out and writhe like he was struggling against something. He hadn't wanted to yell but Dipper was starting to worry him severely and he wasn't waking up. Thankfully that had done the trick...but now he had a new issue to deal with.

Had the kid known about these nightmares? His dark bags and the reluctance to sleep resurfaced from the depths of his mind, and Stan bit his lip harshly so that he didn't swear in front of the kid.

Well, that explained a lot.

Now came the difficult part: trying to calm the boy down.

"Dipper?" He hesitantly laid a hand on said brunette's shoulder but this only elicited a soft gasp and a wince so he pulled back immediately. "You alright, kid?"

Dipper breathed deeply, rubbing his eyes on his arms to try and erase the fact that he had been crying. "Y-Yeah."

It must have been one heck of a nightmare for the boy's voice to sound that small. Stan almost didn't recognize his great-nephew with that voice; where was the confident preteen he had known just an hour or so ago? Dipper wasn't meek and fragile, he shouldn't be acting like this.

Stan didn't like how badly this made him want to shield the kid from whatever had been in that dream. He couldn't fight all of Dipper's battles, as much as he wanted to. Especially when he had no clue what was bothering the kid.

"You don't look it. Mind telling me what that was all about?"

Dipper shook his head resolutely. There was no way he would do such a thing. Grunkle Stan didn't know who Bill was or what had happened at the sock opera, and if he did, he would probably berate Dipper for making a stupid deal with a demon. It was his burden and it was bad enough that Mabel knew about these night terrors. He didn't need to explain them to Stan too, no matter how much his twin appeared to believe it would help.

"Dipper, it's not like these things are your problem and yours alone. Lots of people have nightmares," Stan pressed, not liking the fact that the boy hadn't once looked up since he had awoken. At least Dipper had stopped trembling like a leaf now.

"You... You wouldn't understand. It's o-okay." His voice cracked and he flinched at the blatantly miserable sound. "I'm f-f-fine. You sleep. I'll... I'll keep watch now."

Stan rolled his eyes, despite the pleasant feeling he felt in his chest at the idea of finally sleeping. "Kid, I can hel - "

"No!" The older male frowned and drew back from where he had been about to try and touch the kid again. Dipper looked so pale and frail, yet this time his voice was sure. He sounded a little like himself again but Stan didn't revel in what should have been a relief.

"I... Please. Just sleep."

The boy's voice grew quieter and Stan gazed at him, not wanting to push anymore than he already had but also willing to do whatever it took to help reassure his great-nephew that everything was okay. He ran a hand through his graying hair and sighed softly as he measured the consequences of asking again. Dipper hadn't budged an inch and it seemed best to give him some space before pressing. He didn't want to pressure the boy too much in one night.

"Alright. Fine. But you'd better wake me in a couple hours because then we're going to find a way out of here. Got it?" He kept his voice gentler than usual, not wanting to frighten Dipper more than he already had. Oh, wonderful: now the guilt was beginning to creep into his heart due to that thought.

Dipper nodded, not removing his head from his hands just yet. He heard Stan set down the flashlight beside him and opened his eyes hesitantly as he heard the old man settle down close to him. "I'll be right here, kid. Don't waste that flashlight's battery, okay?"

"Okay," the adolescent said in a stronger voice. He didn't feel as secure as he had before with his great-uncle beside him but at least he wasn't alone.

_If only I could call Mabel._

He immediately shoved that thought aside, hating how he depended on her for silly things like bad dreams. No, he was capable of handling this himself. He didn't need Grunkle Stan or his sister to coddle him or tell him that everything was going to be fine. Dipper Pines was twelve years old and could take care of himself.

A few more minutes of silence ensued before the boy finally looked up, resting his chin on his knees. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Stan's chest rising slowly and steadily. The snores were quietly beginning, confirming that the man was already asleep. He picked up the flashlight and shut it off after a moment of hesitation. He wasn't afraid of the dark. He wasn't.

That wasn't what he feared down here.

The silence was almost suffocating. Dipper sucked in a shaky breath and shook himself. He had to stay awake. He had to keep watch for Grunkle Stan. If he had believed in Dipper in that old memory, surely he was trusting him now.

_Unless, of course, he is still mad about you running off in the middle of the night to explore._

Dipper flinched at the intruding voice in his head. No, he was imagining things. Bill wasn't really here. He was with Stan and god-knows-what down in these tunnels.

Unsurprisingly the thought was not a comforting one.

_"Don't worry, Dipper! I'll be back tomorrow before lunch, and then the Mystery Twins are back in action!"_

"I'm sorry, Mabel," the preteen whispered to the darkness, opening his brown eyes sadly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Ch. 4**

Thankfully, Grunkle Stan said nothing about the incident with the nightmares when Dipper woke him up later on. Neither of them were eager to open that can of worms just yet. Dipper reflected upon his sister's advice to just "talk to Grunkle Stan" and rolled his eyes. Yeah, it would take a miracle before he ever spoke of these nightmares, especially to Stan of all people.

Although the silence on the matter was relieving to the preteen, it was also awkward. Unable to talk about the tension in the air, both found themselves left to their own thoughts.

Stan's mind constantly mulled over what had happened with his great-nephew's nightmares. He couldn't ignore how his gut churned at the memory of Dipper's tear-streaked face in the dark. Gosh, how had he not known the kid was having issues with these dreams? _Did Mabel know?_ He immediately backtracked that inquiry as he proceeded to answer it internally. _Of course she does. She's probably the only one who knows, judging by how well I know my great-niece._

But then that caused more questions to arise: why hadn't Mabel told him about this? Was it a personal matter? Sure, he hadn't gotten to know the twins as well as their parents did, but he had at least thought they would trust him with something as simple as nightmares.

Dipper, meanwhile, was beginning to grow worried on a different subject. He didn't dare check the journal in front of his great-uncle but he was certain that his information on this "cave" was only partially accurate. Or was it even accurate at all? Dipper gnawed on his lower lip in frustration. What if he'd gone in here for nothing? What if the author was wrong about the cure? There hadn't been anything stating what had happened when he'd gone to investigate, after all. Had he gotten himself into troyble over some cure that may not exist?

_And now you've dragged Stan into it too_, his conscience supplied helpfully in the back of his mind.

The brunette suddenly felt ill. If this was all for nothing, there was no way he was going unpunished for dragging the older man into this mess.

As if on cue, Grunkle Stan cleared his throat quietly. "Ah, listen, kid...about what happened..." He didn't miss how the preteen boy tensed up at his words, but he kept talking. "You don't have to describe the whole ordeal to me, but I would like to...you know, _help_. Everybody has nightmares, kid - "

"Not these ones," Dipper muttered, barely audible.

Stan rubbed his eyes, sighing softly. It was unlikely that the kid would open up just like that and maybe wanting to know seemed a tad invasive but...he couldn't get that picture of his great-nephew curled in on himself out of his mind. He sucked in a deep breath and tried once more.

"Dipper, you gotta work with me here."

"Look, just drop the subject, please," Dipper said louder, stopping and turning to look up at his great-uncle. His hands trembled ever-so-slightly as he spoke. "They're not important, okay? Besides you wouldn't understand them."

"You're not the only person who has ever had some scary dream," Stan countered. He was beginning to feel as if he had just wandered into a minefield. "Believe it or not, talking actually does help, kid."

Dipper buried his face in his hands out of frustration, a low groan coming out of his throat. "It's not going to help, okay? Why do you even care? It isn't your problem!"

"Maybe because I happen to be your guardian and since I am trapped in this underground tunnel, I think that leaves me plenty of things to mull over!"

"If you had listened to me un the first place when I told you the earthquake was coming, maybe we wouldn't be stuck down here then!" the younger shot back angrily.

Stan's brown eyes narrowed. "And who was it that wandered in here before even that?"

"I had a good reason!"

"You completely disregarded my words! You promised to not go looking for trouble and look where we are now! Running off in the middle of the night to explore a cave isn't a valid excuse, kid!"

"Ugh!" Dipper flung his arms out, the flashlight's light pointing at the ceiling of the tunnel. "Well, sure! I did run off but that isn't why I'm here. See, you don't even trust me! You just assume that I don't know anything about the supernatural or this town, but you haven't even seen half the things that Mabel and I have done! We're not stupid, we can take care of ourselves out in the woods, you know!"

"I'd trust you more if you told me these things," Stan retorted. "Look, you think that those monsters are a piece of cake to handle, but there are more dangerous things in this place than giant dinosaurs and zombies!"

Without warning, an echoing roar filled the tunnel and both of the Pines males froze.

"I thought we lost that thing," Stan mumbled quietly.

"Apparently not."

The roar came again, this time closer, and neither wasted any time before bolting towards the end of the tunnel. Stan yanked Dipper's shoulder to steer him down the first tunnel when they came to a split path. The boy's heart tentatively rose amid the thundering beats when he noted that they appeared to be climbing uphill now. Perhaps this was a sign of an exit to these gloomy tunnels...

"Don't look back!" Stan called over, his head snapping forward after he himself had glanced over his shoulder moments before. Dipper instinctively did the opposite upon hearing yet another roar, looking to see how closely they were being pursued, and a strangled shout caught in his throat as he spotted what Stan had. Not a hundred feet back, a gremloblin was charging towards them, teeth bared menacingly. That was not the frightening part though: directly behind the gremloblin was a large cluster of dark shapes. The preteen couldn't quite make out what those things were, but the almost violent hissing sound that quickly reached his ears sent a chill down his spine. Every vein and bone in his body screamed that those shadow monsters were bad news.

Because he wasn't facing the right direction as he ran, Dipper tripped over a rock and tumbled onto his side. Stan immediately scrambled over and, grumbling about how he was getting "too old for this", scooped the kid up into his arms as he ran on. An ugly screeching sound from the gremloblin made the old man grit his teeth in determination and this time neither of them dared look back. It was clear from the loud crunching that one of the two foes had been devoured, and Dipper would have bet anything that it wasn't the shadow monsters.

They turned a hard right and took the nearest tunnel when three new paths appeared. The creature didn't seem very smart as they heard the hissing fade down a different pathway for a minute (although not entirely, as it soon seemed to guess the correct tunnel its prey had chosen to run down).

The tunnel inclined sharply upward, still heading onward in near darkness. Dipper pondered the possibility of tossing the light down another path like he had the last time around. Then again, that would only hold those things off for so long and then the Pines' would be unable to see anything.

"Is it just me or is it getting brighter at the far end of the tunnel? Who knows, I'm practically blind even with glasses down here..." Stan said, his voice interrupting Dipper's train of thought. Upon turning to look, he saw that Stan was right. The entranceway not sixty feet ahead looked like it led outside again, judging by how bright it was.

Taking note of the tunnel off to their left, Dipper shut off the flashlight and nudged his great-uncle's shoulder. Stan squinted to the boy and once he realized where his hand was pointing, the old man nodded.

Stan stopped and allowed the kid to scoop up a large rock, which Dipper threw down the other tunnel as they passed it on the way towards the brilliant light. Neither looked backwards to see if their improvisation had succeeded; Stan and Dipper closed their eyes as they charged through the entrance to what was hopefully outside the tunnels.

Both stopped as Stan opened his eyes and set his great-nephew down finally. It felt as if the older male would never be able to catch his breath. Dipper rubbed his eyes, trying to get used to the bright light of sunshine again. He couldn't help but sigh in relief. Hopefully this was the end of the awful night in the tunnels.

"Uh, kid?" Stan had frozen right in the action of trying to rub his own eyes, and now they were growing wider than Lilliputtian golf balls.

Dipper blinked away the spots and looked up to see what was bothering his relative. What he saw made the twelve year old feel ill for a second time.

"Destructor?"

**DSVIV'H Z TIZKKORMT SLLP DSVM BLF MVVW RG, SFS?**

She thought nothing much of it when Grunkle Stan didn't pick her up from the sleepover at the promised time. Stan was normally late, yawning and grumbling occasionally about never getting to sleep in anymore. But he always came, no matter what.

It was when eleven thirty rolled around with Grenda asking Mabel if her great-uncle had fallen back to bed that the worrying began. The brunette excused herself from the makeover game the girls were playing to give the Mystery Shack a call, just in case.

Maybe the boys had just slept in. It wouldn't be the first time. There was no way that Dipper would've forgotten she was at Grenda's house,

Her blood ran cold as the first ring came. Knowing Dipper, he couldn't have slept well that night and he would have stayed up reading. There was no way that they weren't awake.

The receiver picked up at the second ring and her heart leapt in relief. She beamed and immediately braced herself for her great-uncle's sleepy voice. Silly goose must have slept in.

"Mystery Shack, how can I help you?" a familiar lazy tone said.

Mabel frowned. "Wendy? Where are Dipper and Grunkle Stan?"

The redhead's tone instantly changed at the sound of her younger friend's worried voice. "Mabel? Are you still at your friend's house? The door to the Shack was open so Soos and I just went on in this morning. Soos told me nobody was upstairs when he looked a minute after so we assumed you went to Greasy's or something... Have Stan or your brother contacted you since yesterday?"

A terrible unease rested in her gut. What could have happened to Dipper and Stan? They couldn't have simply vanished... Had they gone out for a walk or something and left the door open? It didn't make any sense...

"I last talked to them yesterday. I don't know why they would just be gone. What if they were kidnapped by rogue bandits or gnomes? Oh! What if the pterodactyl came back and ate them both? Oh my gosh!"

Wendy snorted on the other end. "Mabel, relax. Those scenarios are a _bit_ extreme, kiddo. Maybe if we wait an hour or two they'll turn up. I mean, this is Stan and Dipper Pines we are talking about here. There's no way they can't look out for themselves at the very least."

Mabel sighed. "Yeah, you're right, Wendy. Dipper and Stan would have totally taken down that pterodactyl."

"I have no idea what that means, but that's the spirit! I'll get Soos to go pick you up so you aren't waiting forever for somebody, and then we can wait a bit to see if we need to make a huge fuss over this. People disappear a lot and they always turn up in the end. See ya."

"Thanks, Wendy. Bye!"

Mabel hung up and just stared at Grenda's home phone for a good minute or two. The thing was, she _did_ want to make a "huge fuss" out of this situation. Her brother and her great-uncle were _missing_, and Wendy expected her to stay calm and wait for them? The cops weren't going to be much help, and that meant that she was going to have to put herself into her twin's shoes. She had to solve this case like Dipper would, retrace her brother's footsteps to figure out where he had gone. Oh, and of course Waddles was going to help too; where would any detective be without her trusty pet pig after all?

As she began to walk back towards the sound of high-pitched (and much lower-pitched) giggling, a memory struck her suddenly from yesterday. Dipper had wanted to explore some type of cave and she had made him promise to wait for her first. A rising sense of unfamiliar nausea and dread filled Mabel as this began to nag at her mind.

_He didn't... He wouldn't... __Right?_

_ Dipper, please tell me you waited,_ she thought before plastering a smile on her face once Candy and Grenda came into her line of vision.

_Please be alright..._


	5. Chapter 5

**Ch. 5**

The silence did not last too long: within moments the manotaurs had all started yelling, pointing,, and or punching something (the latter, which for a brief time had seemed somewhat normal when he had been training to become a man, reminded him that these creatures wouldn't hesitate before punching _him_). Stan glanced over at Dipper uneasily and the boy swallowed hard, not meeting his great-uncle's gaze.

Well, this was going to be awkward.

"Uh, hey, guys...?" The statement came out more like an inquiry and all of the manotaurs froze where they were. Dipper noted that they were all unanimously glaring at him and plastered a false smile on his face.

"Man, it's been a while! The, uh, cave looks different - did you spruce it up a little?" Stan's grimace that the boy spotted out of the corner of his eyes told him that this attempt at conversation was a flop.

Sure enough, a large manotaur with a dark brown beard stepped forward, arms crossed over his chest. _Chutzpar_, Dipper recalled after a moment. "Why are you here, Destructor? Have you come to prove yourself again?"

His great-uncle raised an eyebrow and mouthed _Prove yourself?_ Dipper felt his cheeks burning and ignored Stan, turning back to his former ally and friend.

"Look, guys, we just ran in here on accident and we honestly thought this was just a way to get out of those tunnels - "

"What were you doing out there?" spoke up a manotaur with a shorter brown beard. "No human goes down those tunnels. Not unless they have a death wish." There was a murmur of agreement throughout the large creatures. A couple glanced around out of nervousness, as if expecting to see something jump out of the shadows.

"Wh-Why not?"

Chutzpar looked back at his fellow manotaurs and both of the Pines caught a glimpse of nervous fear in his eyes easily. "Destructor, there is some creature even worse than the Multi-Bear in these tunnels. It's been here for many years, growing and devouring every and any beast in sight."

"I lost my cousin Glandtaur to those monsters!" Pituitaur exclaimed, a shocking gleam of terror in his eyes. Several others chimed in, declaring what they too had lost to these deadly creatures.

Stan cleared his throat, unexpectedly silencing the rabble. "As entertaining as it is to listen to you talk about some dangerous monster, what _are_ you?"

One of the manotaurs tilted his head and said lowly, (although clearly not low enough for the two humans to overhear) "Who is the old one?"

"He looks aged enough to be an offering," agreed Beardy. Stan's eyes narrowed at this. He didn't need to understand what they meant to know it was a form of insult. Dipper glanced nervously between the two, not liking this turn of conversation. He hoped the older male wouldn't decide to pick a fight with these creatures, as he definitely wasn't going to win strength-wise.

Chutzpar spoke quickly over Beardy, seeming to regain some of his confidence after describing the dreaded monsters. "We are the manotaurs! Half man, um...half taur! Who are you, old hairy human?"

Dipper winced at the increasing intensity of his relative's irritated gaze. "First off, I may be old but I can still deliver a mean punch, _hairy_, so knock it off with the 'old man'. Secondly, I'm his great-uncle."

"Bah, I say we just give them both as offerings to Leaderaur and go find something to knock down!" Pituitaur shouted, jabbing a big finger in the direction of the two humans. A few manotaurs bellowed enthusiastically (probably more at the thought of knocking something down) and Stan curled his hands into fists as he inched toward his great-nephew. Dipper's eyes widened at the look of agreement flashing across more of the manotaurs' faces and blurted out, "Y-You don't want to do that!"

None of the huge creatures were paying him much mind, other than Grunkle Stan who shot him a wary glance.

Dipper tried once more, a bit desperately as he noted how some manotaurs were starting to head for them. "You know, guys, I really thought you were smarter, more...um...more _manly_ than this."

This time almost all of the manotaurs froze, the majority glaring at him. The preteen put on a brave face and pretended not to notice or care.

"I mean, surely you realize you are trying to offer up a true manly, um, man here!"

Pituitaur scoffed. "I hope you aren't talking about _yourself,_ Destructor."

Dipper hoped no one noticed how he flinched at that. "Ah, um...no. That's not what I meant. I just..." He glanced over at Stan, whose gaze was shifting warily between him and the manotaurs, still ready for a fight. Inspiration hit and he prayed that this wouldn't end badly. "I was talking about my great-uncle here, actually."

Murmurs spread through the crowd, some narrowing their eyes and eyeing Stan with confusion. The older Pines gritted his teeth, unsure where the preteen was going with this.

"Kid..."

"The old human?" one manotaur called out, wrinkling his nose. His black beard was lopsided and he was slightly shorter than some of the other manotaurs. "He doesn't look like much of a man. Aside from how hairy he seems to be."

"Hey - !"

Dipper inconspicuously kicked Stan in the shin, laughing nervously. "He may not look like much, but I promise he's definitely manly. He once punched a pterodactyl in the face, you know."

"In the face?" Chutzpar seemed a bit impressed and more whispers flew throughout the cavern.

"Y-Yeah!" A rush of relief flooded into his veins as he realized this could work. After all, the manotaurs were all about manliness, right? He knew that firsthand. "He also took down a whole horde of zombies too! Just smashed them all with his fists and a baseball bat!"

Someone gasped nearby, and Pituitaur nodded out of respect. Stan glanced at Dipper, a little surprised by the telling gleam in his eyes. He had just been trying to protect the kids at the time and hadn't thought much of it. But despite the fact that this was a ploy to distract these weird creatures...he could almost say that Dipper looked _proud_ of him.

He quickly looked away as Dipper gestured toward him, trying to hide the fact that there was definitely not something lodged in his throat right now.

"I mean, are you really going to offer Leaderaur someone as manly and strong as Stan Pines? Why, that would just be wrong! After all, manliness is important, right?"

"Right!" Beardy piped up. The brunette preteen shot him a grateful look.

"I suppose it would be wrong to present this human as an offering," mused Pituitaur, rubbing his nose. He eyed Stan with a mixture of respect and wariness. "However we cannot let you go just yet."

Dipper's smile twitched on his face. He didn't like the sound of that. "Um, why not?"

The manotaur rolled his eyes as if the reason were obvious. "We must hear more tales about this great warrior, of course! If he is indeed as great as you say."

The Pines exchanged looks of uncertainty. It wasn't like they had much of a choice.

"Well, why not?" Stan said, plastering a wide smile on his face and placing a hand on Dipper's shoulder, a gesture that only the boy knew was meant to be protective. "How about the time I had to break out of prison in Columbia, eh? That was a fun experience, I'll tell you..."

**XSFGAKZI HVXIVGOB UVVOH YZW ZYLFG WRHHRMT GSV PRW, BLF PMLD?**

"What do you mean, you can't look for them yet?!" Mabel cried, her hands placed firmly on her hips. The death glare she was giving the two men right now was downright terrifying for someone who was usually so cheerful. Even Soos and Wendy, who stood on her right, flinched slightly at the intensity in the look.

"Well, technically we're not allowed to file a report for a missing persons case until it's been at least a day or so," Sheriff Blubbs said, crossing his arms over his chest. He had been in the middle of eating lunch with Durland when he had received a call from the Mystery Shack telling him to get down here to search for these missing family members, so he wasn't in the best of moods. "It's not like we can just call on search parties all the time. When was the last time you saw either of these relatives, miss?"

"I already told you: last night around seven, which was when Grunkle Stan went to drop me off at my friend's house." The girl huffed at how neither of the men seemed to care about this case. She didn't care that they weren't able to file the report yet; she wanted them to find her brother and her great-uncle. Didn't they understand that this was urgent?

Blubbs glanced over at his partner, shaking his head. He looked back at Mabel with a twinge of pity. "I'm afraid that unless they still fail to show up in the next twenty-four hours, we won't be of any help. I'm sorry. Perhaps they're just busy out of town with something and forgot to tell you they were going."

Mabel opened her mouth to protest but Wendy placed a hand on the younger female's shoulder, silently telling her not to bother with arguing further. It didn't change the fact that this all just made her so angry.

"Call us tomorrow morning if they don't come," Durland told them, shooting Mabel an apologetic look as they headed to the front door. The trio watched the cops go, waiting until they left the Shack before sighing loudly.

"They didn't go out of town!" Mabel practically exploded, throwing her hands up. "I know they didn't! It has to be something else! Maybe they got kidnapped or got eaten or lost in the forest!"

Soos held up his hands in a reassuring gesture. "Believe me, hambone, I get it. It isn't like Mr. Pines and Dipper to just take off without saying anything. But maybe the cops are right, dude. Maybe give it a day before we start to really worry?"

The look the girl sent his way, one of complete shock and horror, scared him a bit. "No! Soos, they're in trouble, I just know it! We need to find them!"

Wendy laid a hand on Mabel's shoulder and crouched down so that they were eye-level. "Mabel, I want to look for them too. I think waiting is stupid, especially if they went into the woods or something. But Soos does have a point. So let's compromise. How about we hold off for a couple of hours, get some supplies together, and _then_ go look for those two idiots? How does that sound?"

Mabel hesitated, biting her lip as she gazed at the ginger. She knew both of her friends were making valid points but the worry was eating away at her. Every bone in her body screamed at her to _find them, find Dipper, find Grunkle Stan, they need you, go!_

"I..."

"I promise we'll take as long as we can to look for them," Wendy added as she observed the hesitation in the girl's face. "We just need to regroup, get ourselves together before we go out, you know?"

Mabel sighed and glanced at the empty armchair in the living room. Her throat clenched the longer she pictured Grunkle Stan in that chair. He needed her. Dipper needed her.

"Only for two hours, though. Any later and I'll go out by myself! With Waddles too, of course."

The redhead laughed quietly, ruffling the younger's hair. "Absolutely. Now come on. We've got to eat lunch still and I'm starving. After all, we can't run on empty stomachs for a rescue mission, right?"

"Totally, dudes!"

Mabel smiled faintly at Soos' enthusiasm, starting to look like her cheerful self again. "Right. We're going to need a lot of Mabel Juice for this much energy!" She ignored how her friends groaned at the mention of that drink.

Some people just didn't appreciate her genius.

**XSFGAKZI HVXIVGOB UVVOH YZW ZYLFG WRHHRMT GSV PRW, BLF PMLD?**

It had only been an hour and yet Dipper was already highly confused as to how this had turned out.

The manotaurs, obviously, had adored Stan's heist and prison stories and finally admitted that it would be awful of them to sacrifice the two. Of course, that didn't mean they had left the old man alone. Stan was currently halfway across the cavern, standing on a tall rock as he told of how he fought off the zombies not too long ago. Dipper was just surprised Stan hadn't gotten tired of telling these tales; he had only intended for him to say one or two to impress them.

Did he not remember that they had to go? Mabel was likely worried sick about them and people were probably searching everywhere to figure out where they had gone. If he had guessed the time correctly, it was about lunchtime.

Speaking of which, the preteen was growing hungry, not having eaten anything since dinner last night. He sighed as his stomach gurgled for the umpteenth time and turned away from where his great-uncle was gesticulating wildly to emphasis his latest story. None of the manotaurs wanted to see him, not even after learning he was related to such a "manly man". They hadn't really forgiven him for turning the right to his manliness down about a month ago.

Not that he cared. Dipper didn't need them. He'd gotten plenty of reassurance from Mabel, especially after taking the Shack back from Gideon, that he didn't need to be huge and hairy-chested to be a man.

And he didn't need that. He was strong on his own.

It was only natural that Grunkle Stan would get along with the manotaurs of all people. He honestly should have expected this coming.

"Have you heard his stories before?" Dipper jumped a little, looking up to see the towering Chutzpar above him.

"Uh, what?"

"Your grandfather or whatever," Chutzpar pointed at Stan. Dipper tried not to roll his eyes at this.

"He's my great-uncle. And yeah, some of these I've heard. He likes to talk about how he tried to steal that vase from a museum in Mexico, something about it being a job well done." The boy shrugged. "I don't know. I sort of tuned out his stories a bit ago."

The large creature glanced between him and Stan, who was now waving his arms sort of like an eagle for some reason. Chutzpar hesitated, as if unsure what to do, before plopping down heavily beside the preteen boy, much to the latter's surprise.

"I sense emotional issues."

Dipper snorted. "Yeah, no. I'm fine, Chutzpar. Really."

The manotaur raised a bushy eyebrow, clearly not convinced. After a moment he placed his hand beside Dipper, almost hesitantly, and glanced once more at the young child's great-uncle.

"The old one is quite impressive. I don't know where Columbia is, but I bet it is difficult to escape from a prison there."

With a snort at that, Dipper rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I guess. He tends to exaggerate his stories."

"He is...different from you."

It didn't take a genius to understand what the creature was insinuating. Dipper's shoulders tensed as he recalled the pain hole, having to cross a river full of crocodiles, running through the woods to behead the mysterious Multi-Bear. He didn't trust himself to respond to Chutzpar without growing embarrassed so he said nothing.

"But it is clear that he cares," the manotaur added. The brunette frowned, looking up at Chutzpar only to realize how he was being studied under a careful gaze. It wasn't quite as intimidating as the earlier looks he had gotten from the manotaurs, almost as if he were being considered for something other than his lack of manliness.

"What are you talking about?"

"He keeps looking over this way at you. And it is obvious that he wants to get you out of here because he is worried about...those things chasing you."

Chutzpar was unable to disguise the twinges of fear in his tone as he spoke the last words. Dipper wanted to question the manotaur about what these monsters were but he had a feeling that it would shut down this conversation. They were close to being civil with one another, reminding him of simpler times when he wasn't being possessed by demons and attacked by hordes of zombies.

He also was a bit surprised at how observant the manotaur was. He had assumed that all of the creatures in here only cared about manliness and becoming strong - that sort of thing that he lacked. However, perhaps they all didn't care so much about those traits.

"You need to leave here soon," Chutzpar said quietly, startling the boy. He had never heard such a soft urgent tone from the manotaur before. "Those shadows will come back after you, and they will come for us as well since you led them here. I don't know why you are in these tunnels but you need to leave them as soon as you can, Destructor."

Dipper nodded, even more surprised when a massive hand was placed on his shoulder, covering it entirely. "I can cover your leave by distracting the others. Just tell me when."

"Why are you - ?" Dipper shut his mouth at the slight bewilderment on Chutzpar's hairy face. He didn't want to be rude. "I mean... After what happened...?"

"We have a common enemy, Destructor," the enormous creature answered, something akin to a smirk playing on his mouth. He seemed amused by how flustered the preteen felt. "Besides, some of us do miss you, you know. Even if you are a scrawny hairless child."

"Gee, thanks, Chutzpar."

Said manotaur rumbled out a laugh. "Anytime, Destructor."

Unfortunately it was at that moment that all hell broke loose.

There was a myriad of hissing coming from the way down to the tunnels underground, and every head turned in that direction right as the walls of the cavern began to tremble violently. Some of the manotaurs huddled together nervously, eyes wide as they clearly recognized the noises. Stan and Dipper met each other's eyes, and the older man immediately made his way through the crowd of creatures for him.

It was the shadow creatures.

"They're trying to block out the sunlight," Chutzpar said, pulling the preteen boy away from the wall by them as it shook.

"If the walls come down, though," Dipper pointed out, "won't that just mean that the sunlight will completely cover this area?"

"You misunderstand me. They aren't trying to bring down the cavern. They are made of shadows, Destructor, yet unlike actual shadows...they do not vanish in the light as easily."

Dipper thought this over, trying to understand what he was implying. "The shadows are gaining enough strength to enter here without dissolving or whatever they do in sunlight."

Chutzpar nodded gravely. The other manotaurs realized what was happening and started charging out of the cavern through the walls, creating life-size holes of their forms. Stan grabbed his great-nephew's shoulder, jaw set as he eyed the mass of black forming at the entrance to the tunnels.

"We need to find a different way out of here," Stan declared.

"Follow me." Both humans looked in astonishment and confusion at the large creature beside them as Chutzpar hurried to the holes in the cracking walls of the manotaurs' cavern. "You will have to jump out!"

Dipper chuckled nervously, hoping this was some kind of joke. "Uh, I don't think that - "

"You have leapt off a cliff and plunged your fist into the pain hole, Destructor!" Chutzpar scolded. "Consider this another test of manliness - and also a life or death choice." Well, that was cheery.

"Pain hole...?"

Dipper glanced back at the shadows as a couple more manotaurs charged through the walls once more. He couldn't help but think that this was a rather stupid way to die.

"Let's do it." Stan turned to his great-nephew, eyebrow raised.

"Um, are you sure, Dipper? We could always try and find another way - "

"Come on!"

The older man sighed and hurried after Dipper as he ran toward the wall. "Or we could leap to our deaths. Fine."

Chutzpar looked down at the boy as he hesitated in front of the enormous hole three times his size, biting his lip as he waited for Stan to catch up. The creature recalled the determination in the boy's eyes not too long ago when he had declared he would destroy their sworn enemy, his jaw tight and focus solely on the fight ahead. He observed the same expressions in his relative's features when it came to protecting the brunette.

As Stan Pines hefted the younger into his arms and charged out of the wall a minute later, the manotaur thought that perhaps there was a chance Dipper Pines was going to be taught proper lessons in manliness after all.


End file.
